Serena Williams looks on with John McEnroe before their match at the DIRECTV ESPN US Open Experience promoting DIRECTV’s mosaic coverage of the US Open August 26, 2009 at Bryant Park in New York Cty. (Rob Tringali/Getty Images for DirecTV)

Photo: Staff Writer

Photo: Staff Writer

John McEnroe says Donald Trump offered him ‘sums of money to play Serena or Venus’

After his comments over the weekend ranking Serena Williams "like No. 700 in the world" if she played on the men’s circuit and refusing to apologize on CBS This Morning on Tuesday, former tennis star John McEnroe now says he was once challenged by Donald Trump to play the William Sisters.

In a Tuesday appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show”, McEnroe said over time, many people— including Trump before he was President of the United States— offered McEnroe “sums of money” to play Serena or Venus Williams.

“I don’t know why I’m always the guy they want to play... but at any rate, I believe I have some ability left and I had pride when I played,” McEnroe said. “Why don’t they ask her to play Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal on clay, see how that goes?”

As a follow up question, McEnroe asked why he never accepted any of the offers.

“I never thought really that was something, to mix the apples and the oranges,” McEnroe said of men and women playing together. “I’d probably suggest now that it might not be a bad idea if everyone’s up in arms about it have the women play in the men’s circuit, we’ll see what happens. Let them all play for the next two years and we’ll see what happens.”